The entire document appears less like a public policy document aimed at social welfare and more like a charter serving corporate interests.
Published Jan 08, 2026 | 4:47 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 08, 2026 | 4:47 PM
Unveiling of the Telangana Means Business, Vision 2047 document.
Synopsis: The Vision 2047 document released by the Telangana government is filled with lofty claims that are far removed from reality. The government describes education as the “backbone of Telangana’s long-term economic and social transformation”. But in reality, the government has reduced the public school system to a virtual corpse.
In the Vision 2020 document released during the tenure of N Chandrababu Naidu as the chief minister of the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, it was stated quite explicitly that education would be treated as a business. That is to say, the social welfare objective inherent in education would be set aside and reduced to a narrow calculus of profit and loss.
That document, released 27 years ago, faced sharp criticism even at the time. None of the grandly proclaimed objectives was achieved. All of them eventually stood exposed as falsehoods meant to deceive the people.
In current Telangana, under the chief ministership of A Revanth Reddy — who was a long-time disciple of Chandrababu Naidu and whom some allege remains so even now — a similar bombastic and pretentious document has now appeared. It is titled “Telangana Means Business, Vision 2047.”
Just as the guru released Vision 2020 in 1998 and claimed it would be achieved in 21 years, starting from 1999, the disciple released this document in 2025 and repeats that it too will be implemented for exactly 21 years, beginning in 2026.
The Vision 2047 document is filled with lofty claims that are far removed from reality — claims such as developing the state not in competition with other Indian states but in competition with China and Japan, and transforming Telangana into a $3 trillion economy by 2047. To understand what a document of falsehoods this is, a single statistic is sufficient.
If the Telangana economy is to become a $3 trillion (three lakh crore dollars) economy by 2047, then even at today’s exchange rates, this would amount to an economy of around ₹270 lakh crore. The current Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is about ₹18 lakh crore.
For it to grow to that extent over 21 years, even a basic arithmetic calculation shows that an annual growth rate of over 20 percent would be required. Since growth rates generally decline as the base increases, the actual required rate would have to be even higher.
Moreover, given that the value of the rupee against the dollar is likely to fall further, the total gross output would have to be even higher. Even the fastest-growing economies in the world have not exceeded annual growth rates of 14–15 percent. India’s own economy has not crossed 7–8 percent even now. Except for the fictional braggart Tupaki Venkataramudu, no one else could claim that they would triple a single state’s economy.
Be that as it may, the 160-page Vision 2047 document is replete with countless such questionable, ridiculous, and impractical proclamations. But in today’s column, let us confine ourselves only to what Vision 2047 says about education, and what is likely to become of Telangana’s education sector by 2047.
There is no exclusive chapter devoted to education in the Vision 2047 document. However, education is mentioned in many places. In fact, the entire document appears less like a public policy document aimed at social welfare and more like a charter serving corporate interests.
To drown people in illusions, it showers colourful terminology, attractive goals, imaginings of international standards, and ostentatious promises. Especially when it comes to education, there is no dearth of words. If one were to pile up all those words, they would be enough to undermine education systems or universities operating at the highest global standards.
However, recalling the proverb about having perfume oil for the moustache while lacking even a morsel to eat, it becomes clear that all these grand claims are nothing but bubbles.
The moment one reads the flashy and seductive language used in the document about educational development, a question inevitably arises: Is there any connection at all between these visionary targets and the grim realities of Telangana’s faltering education system as of today?
Looking at the present condition of Telangana’s education system, one wonders not whether it can reach heaven by 2047, but whether it can even manage to stay afloat in the 2025–26 academic year, or lift itself even a few inches above its current state of collapse.
According to government statistics themselves, student enrolment has fallen drastically in thousands of government schools in Telangana. Some reports suggest that in more than a thousand schools, student numbers have dropped to zero — absolute zero.
In many more schools, there are fewer than ten students. This is not a situation arising from natural demographic change; it is the direct result of political neglect and deliberate destruction of government schools.
During the Telangana movement, the revival of government education was once a major slogan. However, after the formation of the state, for more than a decade, government expenditure on public schools steadily decreased. The share of education in the state budget is lower than the national average.
Spending on education hovers at around just two percent of the state’s total revenue. How “world-class education” can be achieved with such levels of investment is something the Vision document does not explain.
In Vision 2047, the government describes education as the “backbone of Telangana’s long-term economic and social transformation”. But in reality, the government has reduced the public school system — which is supposed to carry that backbone — to a virtual corpse.
In the state’s 27,000 government schools, there are about 2.4 million students, while in 11,000 private schools, there are about 3.4 million students. In the context of such massive privatisation of school education, what backbone is the government document boasting about sustaining?
Today, even poor rural and urban families are going into debt to send their children to private schools. As a result, the share of private schools in Telangana is rising rapidly, while government schools are being left only for the very poorest — and even those are steadily emptying.
To ignore this dire situation, refuse to discuss it, fail to think of strategies to change it, and merely garland the word “backbone” is like placing a floral wreath on a corpse.
The Vision 2047 document liberally scatters terms such as digital classrooms, edtech platforms, and learning dashboards. At the same time, government reports themselves reveal that many schools lack proper toilets — or any toilets at all — especially in girls’ schools, where this is a major problem.
In several districts, drinking water facilities are still not fully available. Electricity supply problems persist. Adequate school buildings are lacking. In the absence of these basic facilities, talking about a digital revolution is a cruel joke—self-deception and deception of others.
The issue of teachers is even more serious. Thousands of teacher posts remain vacant across Telangana. Due to years of non-recruitment, many schools are forced to rely on a single teacher to teach all classes.
On the other hand, existing teachers are frequently pulled out of classrooms for elections, surveys, and administrative duties. Although Vision 2047 describes teachers as “knowledge facilitators” and promises to provide online tools to monitor their performance and teaching abilities, it offers no clarity on the more fundamental issues of their working conditions and professional dignity.
When it comes to educational quality, national-level studies such as the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) reports indicate a declining trend in basic reading and arithmetic skills at the primary level in Telangana. This is not merely the effect of the Covid period; it is the outcome of long-term policy failure. The Vision document does not even acknowledge this reality. Instead, it leaps straight into fantasies of the future.
The situation is no different in higher education. In Telangana’s public universities, thousands of faculty positions remain vacant. Many departments are running largely on guest lecturers. Funding and infrastructure for research are limited.
Yet, instead of even minimal thinking or budgetary allocations to correct this situation, the document indulges in lofty but reality-defying rhetoric about transforming Telangana into a “knowledge economy.”
In Vision 2047, higher education is linked to skills, industry linkages, and startup ecosystems. These phrases may sound attractive, but their real meaning is to subordinate education entirely to market needs and corporate interests. That is a dangerous signal for a democratic society.
Education is not merely about producing job-ready skills; it is a process of nurturing critical thinking, social responsibility, and civic consciousness. This dimension is completely absent from the Vision document.
As for social justice, education in Telangana remains deeply intertwined with caste, class, and regional inequalities. The rural–urban divide is widening. Support systems required for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Backward Class (BC), and minority students remain weak. Although the term “inclusive education” appears in Vision 2047, there are no corresponding budgetary commitments or implementation strategies.
In sum, the references to education in Vision 2047 are driven by political motives rather than genuine concern for social welfare. Far from offering solutions to the crisis confronting Telangana’s education system today, the document does not even wish to see the crisis, let alone acknowledge it.
Without strengthening government schools, undertaking teacher recruitment, filling vacancies in higher education, improving educational infrastructure, increasing budgetary allocations to education, and redefining education as a social right, no number of vision documents will yield results.
The year 2047 is not some distant future; it is merely the natural outcome flowing from present-day policies. Those in power today may not be around to see what it turns out to be, nor may observers be present. But history will record what happened, and how it happened.
(Views are personal. Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
